Minister Killeen announces SanDisk to move strategic activities to its Dublin facility

Expansion to 50 staff by end of 2007

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Tony Killeen TD, today (Tuesday 25^th April 2006) announced that SanDisk Corporation, of the US, is to bring its EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Africa) Headquarters to its existing facility, SanDisk International (SDI), in Swords, Co. Dublin. The new EMEA activities will commence immediately and will increase employment from 12 people to 50 by the end of 2007. The company is currently recruiting multi-lingual sales, marketing and finance staff.

Minister Killeen said “This announcement is the result of the success of the existing Irish operation and the relative ease with which SanDisk recruited the high quality and skilled staff it required. We will continue to work with SanDisk to encourage the Corporation to commit to locating further strategic functions at its Irish facility.”

SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. It is also the only company worldwide which has the rights to both manufacture and sell every major flash card format.Flash storage cards allow data to be stored and retained when power is interrupted. They are used in a variety of electronic consumer products including digital cameras and personal digital assistants. In 2005, SanDisk established the Swords facility to manage supply chain and sales support functions for the EMEA and Asia-Pacific markets.

Mr. Ed Moro, Vice President and Managing Director of SanDisk EMEA said, “I am very pleased with our move, because it will allow all of our growing family of EMEA employees to be housed under one roof with room for growth. SanDisk has been operating in the EMEA regions for several years, and our sales have significantly increased every year. SanDisk is focused on establishing an international brand and driving demand for flash memory products across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”

Ends / LA 177

Notes to Editor

SanDisk currently has 315 issued US patents and about 160 foreign patents. It has patent licensing agreements with Intel, Sony and Toshiba. Under these agreements, SanDisk enables competitors to manufacture and sell products that incorporate flash technology, protected by SanDisk’s patents. SanDisk earns 90% of its revenues from product sales and 10% from licences and royalties. Over 80% of product sales are to retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Office Depot, and the remainder to global companies such as Motorola, Ericsson and Nokia.

SanDisk Corporation was established in 1988 and is based in Sunnyvale, California. It is a public company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (SNDK), employing 1,000 people. It outsources manufacturing to semiconductor foundries in Taiwan and Israel, and in 2005 it formed a joint venture with Toshiba to manufacture flash memory storage cards in Japan.

Further information from SanDisk please contact –

David Curtin, Grayling Public Relations (01) 6694900 or (086) 2832123

ENDS.